Dario's Art Vault: Dark Knight Original Samples

[pandayboss]

These were the original pencil samples I did back in '99 before I made an animated version of these pieces. This samples was based on DC's Dark Knight #139 - Part 3 from the original art pages by Paul Gulacy. I loved these sequences in the book, so I've recreated the pages using my own style. I hope you enjoy these works.

[Morganza]

Beautiful work Dario! I'd love to see your work in DC!

[pandayboss]

Originally Posted by Morganza

Beautiful work Dario! I'd love to see your work in DC!

Thanks Morganza. I'd like to do some DC work but it's not easy to get work from those big guys these days.

[TheRealityComics]

Your work is beautiful -- I mean truly beautiful -- but your storytelling, I'm sorry to say, is very confusing.

Jim going from SO far away from the origin of the Bat Signal to the roof of the PD HQ in two panels is odd. Also, is Jim NOT in HIS OWN office? If he is, why does the Bat Signal original from across town?

Then Catwoman is hinted at being to the RIGHT of the signal and then she pops out (in the inset) to the LEFT of it.

On the next page, it does NOT look like the cat o'nine's connect w/ Jim's hand. In panel 2, she's suddenly sneaking out from behind something when that's NOT where she was on previous page. (Also, it seems like Batman and Jim are MUCH too close to the light for her to be snapping that whip so far out.)

Then, the direction of the whip from Batman's arm to Catwoman and where she's supposed to standing doesn't seem to match.

Your angles and the way you change up the shots from panel to panel is terrific. I love your take on Batman and Catwoman. Just work on your blocking.

[pandayboss]

Originally Posted by TheRealityComics

Your work is beautiful -- I mean truly beautiful -- but your storytelling, I'm sorry to say, is very confusing.

Jim going from SO far away from the origin of the Bat Signal to the roof of the PD HQ in two panels is odd. Also, is Jim NOT in HIS OWN office? If he is, why does the Bat Signal original from across town?

Then Catwoman is hinted at being to the RIGHT of the signal and then she pops out (in the inset) to the LEFT of it.

On the next page, it does NOT look like the cat o'nine's connect w/ Jim's hand. In panel 2, she's suddenly sneaking out from behind something when that's NOT where she was on previous page. (Also, it seems like Batman and Jim are MUCH too close to the light for her to be snapping that whip so far out.)

Then, the direction of the whip from Batman's arm to Catwoman and where she's supposed to standing doesn't seem to match.

Your angles and the way you change up the shots from panel to panel is terrific. I love your take on Batman and Catwoman. Just work on your blocking.

That's a really good feedback and brilliant, valid comments. Thanks so much.

What I did was changing the pacing a bit...making into more faster movement, that's why camera angles and location points were not in synch...otherwise I would have needed more panels to tell the story in that page. Catwoman, showing her shadow on the right doesn't mean she can come out there, she walks around the contraption to get a full face with Batman & Gordon and room to swing her whip...that's why she's in that position...same, the camera position was forced. Marvel Comics used that trick as opposed to European comics where they used more than 10 panels in a page. When I worked for MC, we worked on plots and we tried to limit our panels to seven max which was the perception amongst artists...also was not entirely enforced...that's why the camera shot and pacing or staging was shorten to be able to cram the scenes in a page.